The most beautiful cities in Germany

Germany’s most beautiful cities and towns stand among the best places to visit in the European Union. They span almost the full range of European variety. Raven Travel Guides Germany include:

• Cities with Roman origins and remains such as Trier, Cologne, Regensburg and Mainz.
• Medieval cities such as Nuremberg, Erfurt, Bamberg and Worms and the half-timbered Harz region towns of Goslar, Quedlinburg and Wernigerode.
• Renaissance showpiece cities such as Lübeck, Augsburg or Bremen.
• Cities with Baroque survivals, including Dresden, Heidelberg or Passau.
• Plenty of German cities have beautiful palaces on their streets or nearby, like Potsdam, Munich, Stuttgart, Würzburg and Weimar.
• The great cathedrals such as Cologne, Regensburg, Bamberg, Mainz, Erfurt, Worms, with countless other churches, sometimes in Romanesque but more commonly in the Gothic style. The münster of Ulm has the tallest spire of them all.
• Museums of culture and art among world’s best, including Deutsches Museum, Deutsches Nationalmuseum, Alte Pinakothek and the Pergamonmuseum.

All these places can be reached by train and bus (Quedlinburg is on a branch line). All offer a range of hotels, hostels, guest houses and other types of accommodation. All are very walkable and, like most German towns and cities, are really best seen on foot. But trams and buses help get people to and from hotels or attractions and for the bigger centres, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Nuremberg, there are fast regular options in the form of S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains and light-rail transport.

Görlitz

Görlitz is a special place for fans of variety in architecture. An extraordinary array of streetscapes awaits travellers in Germany’s easternmost city on the Polish border. Historical style is encouraged and preserved in a place seemingly little touched by contemporary forms, a quality extended to the city's railway station and department store.

The historical market square and old town show all historical styles. Diverse towers, gateways, facades, arches, portals, escutcheons, cartouches and friezes characterise both public buildings and residences, all restored in bright colours. There is even a scaled replica of the medieval form of the Holy Sepulchre.

The city also has a Silesian regional museum and a museum of cultural history. The church Pfarrkirche St Peter und Paul offers a viewpoint over the historic city. For a quick stroll into Poland, cross the city bridge over the river Neisse.